WATCH LIVE: 2013 Horizon League Championships - Day 4 Finals

CHICAGO, Ill. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - The Green Bay men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up a
successful four days at the 2013 Horizon League Championships on Saturday night
at the UIC Flames Natatorium in Chicago. The women's squad finished third in a
tight race for the team title, while the men's squad moved up a spot to fourth
place after finishing fifth in each of the last five seasons.

Green Bay accumulated 647 points on the women's side,
finishing 10.5 points behind second-place Cleveland State (657.5) and 41.5
points back of champion Milwaukee (688.5). The Phoenix edged UIC (646.5) for
third by just a half of a point. Green Bay scored 533.5 points on the men's
side, which was over 100 points more than it scored in last year's meet (432).

Aiding the men's team's improvement was freshman Willem Poelmans (Hasselt, Belgium), who
earned Horizon League Men's Newcomer of the Year honors after picking up a pair
of individual titles in record-breaking fashion. The newcomer first won
the 200-yard IM on Thursday with a Horizon League and school-record time of
1:49.06, and then claimed
the 400 IM in 3:52.85 on Friday while shattering another school record.
Both swims were also good enough for NCAA B-cuts.

Day Four Recap

The Phoenix women, who entered the day just 28.5 points
back of then-leader Cleveland State, could not have asked for a better start to
Saturday's finals as junior Kendra
Rottier (Green Bay, Wis.) and senior Melissa
Killpatrick (Elk River, Minn.) finished 1-2 in the night's opening event -
the 1650 freestyle. Rottier finished first in 16:50.94, marking her second
individual title of the meet, while Killpatrick touched in at 16:55.91.

Megan Burley
(Hazelhurst, Wis.) concluded her strong senior campaign with a third-place showing
in the 200 butterfly on Saturday, finishing in 2:06.36. Another senior, Heather Bodin (Maple Grove, Minn.) was
fifth in 2:07.64.

Sophomore Ryan
Korslin (Rudolph, Wis.) produced the top finish for the Phoenix men on
Saturday, racing to a fourth-place effort in the 200 breaststroke in 2:02.58.
Poelmans was fifth in the 200 breast in 2:02.81, while senior Jonathan Lesniak (McHenry, Ill.) was
sixth in 2:03.33.

Senior diver Mitchell
Spaeth (Fredonia, Wis.) turned in an exceptional performance in his final
Horizon League meet, placing fifth on the 3-meter board with an impressive
score of 322.40.

Day Three Recap

Despite sitting in fourth place, the Green Bay
women's swimming and diving team (459 points) is within striking distance of
first-place Cleveland State (487.5 points) heading into the final day of the
2013 Horizon League Championships. The Phoenix men's squad is also in fourth
following Friday's finals at the UIC Flames Natatorium after picking up a pair
of individual conference titles in school-record fashion.

"It's interesting on the
women's side to have the top four teams very much in the mix heading into
Saturday," Green Bay head coach Jim
Merner said. "We have some good opportunities tomorrow to make a move, but
it's going to be very difficult. Only time will tell."

Senior Megan Burley (Hazelhurst, Wis.) continued
her strong conference meet for the Green Bay women with a runner-up finish in
the 400-yard IM, touching in at 4:25.87.

One day after bursting
onto the scene with a record-setting
win in the 200 IM, men's freshman Willem
Poelmans (Hasselt, Belgium) was at it again on Friday with another dominant
performance. Poelmans claimed the 400 IM with a winning time of 3:52.85, smashing
the 2003 school record of 4:02.80 previously held by Dan Brzozowski. The time,
which was less than a second away from the Horizon League record of 3:52.07,
was also good for his second NCAA B-cut of the meet.

Sophomore Ryan Korslin (Rudolph, Wis.) also earned
an individual championship, a school record and an NCAA B-cut on Friday,
winning the 100 breaststroke in 54.81. The time broke the old school record of
55.11 set by Jason Askew in 2011. Senior Jonathan
Lesniak (McHenry, Ill.) was third in the 100 breast, finishing in 55.96.

Day Two Recap

Green Bay freshman Willem Poelmans (Hasselt, Belgium) made some noise in his first
Horizon League Swimming & Diving Championships experience on Thursday, winning
the 200-yard IM in record-breaking fashion at the UIC Flames Natatorium. The
Phoenix men moved up a spot into fourth place following the second day of
competition, while the women's squad remains in second, just 16 points behind
first-place Cleveland State.

Poelmans finished the 200
IM with a blazing time of 1:49.06 in the finals, breaking the Horizon League
record of 1:49.09 set by Cleveland State's Jakub Dobies in 2010. The time,
which earned an NCAA B-cut, also shattered the 14-year-old Green Bay record of
1:52.67 set by Jens Sonntag in 1999. Poelmans also broke the school record in
prelims earlier in the day, finishing with a time of 1:49.37.

The Phoenix also had
success in the 200 IM on the women's side, as seniors Heather Bodin (Maple Grove, Minn.) and Megan Burley (Hazelhurst, Wis.) finished second and third behind
Milwaukee junior standout Emily McClellan (2:00.49). Bodin grabbed the
runner-up spot with a time of 2:03.34, while Burley was close behind in
2:04.67.

Day One Recap

Led by Kendra
Rottier's (Green Bay, Wis.) victory in the 1000-yard freestyle, the Green
Bay women's swimming and diving team finished the first day of the 2013 Horizon
League Championships at the UIC Flames Natatorium in second place, just nine
points behind leading Cleveland State. The men's squad ended day one of
competition in fifth, only five points out of third.

Rottier, who won
three individual championships as a sophomore at the 2012 Horizon League
meet in Milwaukee, successfully defended one of her titles on Wednesday,
touching in first in the 1000 with a season-best time of 10:07.32. The junior
finished three seconds ahead of UIC freshman Veronica Gibson, who was second in
10:10.20.

The highlight for the
Phoenix men came in the night's final event - the 200 medley relay. The underclassman
quartet of Matt Hollub (Appleton,
Wis.), Ryan Korslin (Rudolph, Wis.),
Cole Hackney (Highlands Ranch,
Colo.) and Ben Loeffelholz (Dubuque,
Iowa) raced to a second-place finish with a time of 1:30.04, breaking the Green
Bay school record of 1:31.71 set at last year's conference meet. Hollub,
Korslin and Hackney were also on last season's record-setting relay team.

2013 Horizon League Championships Preview

The Phoenix women, coming off a third-place finish at the 2012 Horizon League Championships, enter this year's meet with a 5-4 record in dual meets. Among this year's highlights, the Phoenix claimed the team title at the seven-team IUPUI House of Champions Invitational on Dec. 2. Prior to last season, Green Bay had won seven consecutive Horizon League titles.

On the men's side, the Phoenix aims to improve upon its fifth-place finish from a year ago. Green Bay, 3-5 in dual meets, earned a pair of invitational victories this season at the House of Champions Invite and the Butler Invite.